Uber Eats food-delivery robots set to enter use in multiple US cities

Each robot can reportedly run for a full day on one charge of its battery pack. Serve Robotics Inc. View gallery – 3 images
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By Ben Coxworth
2023 May 30

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For the past year, Uber-backed Serve Robotics’ wheeled robots have been delivering takeout food and groceries to customers in Los Angeles area. The company has now announced that up to 2,000 of the bots are set to enter use with Uber Eats in other North American cities.

According to Serve Robotics, over 200 restaurants are now participating in Los Angeles pilot project. Additionally, in both LA and the company’s home city of San Francisco, the autonomous sidewalk-going robots have “completed tens of thousands of contactless deliveries” since Serve’s foundation in 2017.

In the just-announced expansion, plans call for as many as 2,000 of the bots to be utilized by Uber Eats in multiple other American and Canadian cities. Serve is currently working with industry partners and municipal authorities in various locations, although we’ve been told that a short list of possible cities includes San José, Vancouver and Dallas.

Each four-wheeled robot is reportedly able to operate for a full day on one charge of its battery pack, carrying up to 50 lb (23 kg) of cargo at a top speed of 7 mph (11 km/h). Its cargo compartment can only be unlocked by the corporate client or the customer who placed the order, the latter utilizing an app. And notably, all of the robots are capable of Level 4 autonomous driving.

“Level 4 is when no human attention is required in predefined areas,” Serve Robotics co-founder/CEO Ali Kashani told us. “This is achieved using a host of advanced AI capabilities that help our robots navigate cities: AI helps robots detect which surfaces to navigate on, find the route that’s fastest and also safest, detect and identify people and cars, and even identify risk of collision with cars when drivers are inattentive at intersections.”

The expansion is planned to take place mainly in 2024, although the first new market could begin using the robots as soon as the fourth quarter of this year.

For examples of other wheeled food-delivery robots – which are already in use in select locations – check out the offerings from Starship Technologies, Ottonomy and Nuro.

Source: Serve Robotics View gallery – 3 images
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Tags

Robotics Food Uber Autonomous Delivery robots
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Ben Coxworth

Based out of Edmonton, Canada, Ben Coxworth has been writing for New Atlas since 2009 and is presently Managing Editor for North America. An experienced freelance writer, he previously obtained an English BA from the University of Saskatchewan, then spent over 20 years working in various markets as a television reporter, producer and news videographer. Ben is particularly interested in scientific innovation, human-powered transportation, and the marine environment.
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4 comments

P51d007 – 2023 May 30 – 10:58 AM

Bet they won’t show up in some “urban” inner cities for fear of being stolen.

Daishi – 2023 May 30 – 03:46 PM

@P51d007 I’m curious how they are going to deal with theft too. Things have gotten a bit crazy in a lot of US cities. It is so bad that the lifespan of a backpack in a rental car in some cities can be measured in minutes and people have resorted to just leaving their windows down or a note saying the door is unlocked so they don’t get their windows broken. On one hand the items in this are probably less valuable than laptops or credit cards but on the other the police in many cities aren’t going to care much about theft from them. They will probably have to hire private security that can be dispatched if someone tampers with it.

Daishi – 2023 May 30 – 04:08 PM

Another thought is the food inside doesn’t have enough value to encourage a crime ring but the robot itself and some of the components are probably expensive. It has cameras and GPS trackers etc. but they could probably be placed in a faraday cage and scrapped for parts.

guzmanchinky – 2023 May 30 – 04:44 PM

I wonder if the biggest problem is pranksters…
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